Tears of frustration welled up. “I’ll never get this right,” she whispered.
Maya started over. This time, she copied the Application ID into a notebook, a sticky note, and her phone’s notes app. She also saved her progress every five minutes.
Rahul’s voice echoed in her mind: “The photo is the #1 rejection reason. Go to a professional studio. Say, ‘U.S. visa photo, 2x2 inches, white background, no glasses, neutral expression.’” ds 160 application
She spent thirty minutes slowly scrolling through 20 pages of answers. On page 7, she spotted a typo: her mother’s last name was misspelled by one letter. She fixed it. On page 12, she had accidentally said “Yes” to “Do you have any communicable disease?” —a terrifying error. She corrected it to “No.”
A PDF appeared:
Maya found a photo studio on her lunch break. The photographer knew exactly what to do. In ten minutes, she had a digital copy that passed the DS-160’s strict checker on the first try.
Maya thought she was done. She uploaded her passport photo—a nice selfie against a white wall. Tears of frustration welled up
As Maya progressed, the questions felt like a maze. “What is your travel plans? Do you have a detailed itinerary?” She hadn’t booked anything yet.